EVENTS

“Voter Fraud” Is Yet Another Despicable Brazen Republican Lie

Here is an editorial by the New York Times explaining why the Indiana “Anti Voter Fraud” law is itself a fraudulent attempt by the Republican Party to deny the franchise to numerous United States citizens, and why the Supreme Court decision to uphold the law is a serious mistake. There is no evidence whatsoever that the form of fraudulent voting this law is intended to prevent—someone showing up to the polls and voting as someone else—even exists.

Who are the people who are going to prevented from voting because they do not possess a valid government-issued photo ID? The poor, the homebound elderly, the homeless, and racial minorities. The Republican Party does not want these citizens of the United States to be able to vote because they will not be voting for the disgusting neo-feudal fucking demons that the Republican Party drags out of the shitstreams of its morally heinous conservative sewer to put up for election every year.

This is all bad enough, but it is not the worst thing about the Supreme Court decision upholding the Indiana law.

What is most disturbing is the mode of jurisprudence employed by our Supreme Court, and the fact that it represents a descent into rank conservative partisanship. Without getting into the legal and constitutional details, suffice to say that on statutory and constitutional grounds, the Supreme Court has, until now, applied very, very strict review of voting laws that in any way impair the ability of citizens to vote.

The historical reason for this is, of course, the fact that the racist neo-confederate scumbags who were the precursors of those who now control the Republican Party used voter laws to prevent blacks from voting in the South, thereby maintaining a Jim Crow stranglehold on political, legal, economic, and social power. Based on this clearly nefarious purpose of laws such as poll taxes—requiring payment of a fee to vote—or “literacy” tests coupled to their obvious impairment of the ability of citizens to vote, the Supreme Court has struck them down.

Well, our conservative partisan hackfucks on the Supreme Court have flushed that salutory tradition of fairness and equity right down the fucking shitter. Again without getting into legal and constitutional details, the bottom line of the Supreme Court’s reasoning is that—even though no actual evidence of fraud was apparent in the legislative history of the law, and even though any fucking fool could see that this law was passed on solely partisan line for a solely partisan purpose, and even though any fucking fool could see that this law was going to prevent many more citizens of the United States from voting than it was ineligible voters—because the possibility of such fraud was not zero, the burden was on those seeking invalidation of the law to provide specific evidence of eligible citizens of the United States being prevented from voting.

Make no mistake about it, this is a massive fucking shift in voting rights jurisprudence. Where the heavy burden used to fall on governments to demonstrate the fairness of voting laws, now the heavy burden is on aggrieved citizens of the United States to demonstrate their unfairness. So this mean that state legislatures controlled by sick-fuck conservative wastrels can pass any old fucking law they want to unduly restrict voting of citizens of the United States, and all they have to do to pass constitutional and legal muster is pull out some cockamamie bullshit story out of their fucking asses about how they are PREVENTING VOTER FRAUD!11!1!1!!ELEVENTY!1!1!1!11!!

And this also tells us something much more general and ominous about the direction Supreme Court jurisprudence is going. Used to be, the Supreme Court was a bulwark against the depraved excesses of the neo-feudal right-wing wackaloons who now control the Republican Party. They required that laws that vitiate fundamental rights of citizens of the United States be subject to severe scrutiny and imposition of a heavy burden of justification that their benefits are real, discernible, and greatly outweigh their vitiating effect.

Now that’s all just quaint liberal balderdash. Now the Supreme Court—controlled as it is by a demented sick-fuck right-wing partisan faction—has made it clear that state governments can basically fuck with your fundamental rights all the fuck they want, so long as they pull enough fucking justificatory bullshit out of their asses. Is this egregious shit coming back?

Comments

All of this is another reason why anyone who doesn’t pull the D lever for president is selling everyone up the river – Who is on the Supreme Court MATTERS. Crap said during campaigns for president really doesn’t.

After this campaign Obama needs to find a woman Veep. Srsly. It doesn’t have to be Hillary (shouldn’t be, can’t be actually) but it would be fantastic to respect the hopes and aspirations of the Dems who were energized by the possibility of a woman party nominee and woman Pres in this way.

This is news to anyone. Anyone. The pubicains are going to bring every hammer they can to stop the wave. I say good luck. With every pathetic tactic they tend to dig the hole a bit deeper. Sly fuckers that they are I fear this is the proverbial tip of the iceberg. I agree with JE being AG, my what a big broom you have John. One can only hope. The trick of voter fraud being brought up keeps the eye of the elephant in the room. ELECTION FRAUD. These bastards who have control of certain companies that supply the machines hope to hell this is where the conversation stays. Bring back the paper ballot and hand counting. I can be patient for the next president to be declared. Rather than appointed by the powers that be. PP thanks again for the forum.

We’ve had voter id requirements since 04 and man, that was a hassle to vote in the last general. We don’t require the photo id.. yet. Ours requrired you show your voter id card and another id with your home address on it. If your dl doesn’t have the right addy, then you can show two utilitiy bills or something with your addy on it. I had to come home to get utility bills and when I returned with them, they expressed surprise that I came back. Many people I know had to vote provisional ballots. We don’t know how many people didn’t return or how many provisionals they threw out or plain just didn’t count. The delay it creates in the returns seems to be what they’re after as well.

Whatever “problem” with voter fraud they claim there to be, this photo id won’t resolve it. Its bullshit.

It’s also a stepping stone to a national id card for HS.

drugmonkey – I knocked on a lot of doors in canvasing for Napolitano. She’s been the one shining star in Arizona politics for some time. I think she’d be a great vp. She’s got the credentials too.

Bradblog has been ‘on’ voter fraud for a long while now.
As for the keeping track of issues – allocated blogging really – that was one of the driving ideas behind ‘Watching Those We Chose’ http://proctoringcongress.blogspot.com/,set up before Out of Iraq Bloggers Caucus by the pundits of Kevin Drum’s ‘Political Animal’ at Washington Monthly.
‘Make Them Accountable’ seems to have become bogged down in the Obama/Clinton contest.
The Texans have something interesting going : BlueBloggin http://www.bluebloggin.com/ will have the link.
Missouri is nuts for political blogs.I follow Blue Girl Red State myself.http://bluegirlredmissouri.blogspot.com/

You have to show ID to buy beer because it is illegal for those under 17 to buy beer and they try to do so all the fucking time. You can buy beer pretty much any time 24/7/365 and any other adult can buy it for you therefore the burden you suffer by not being able to buy beer should you forget your ID is pretty damn low.

In startling contrast there is very little evidence that illegal immigrants try to vote. Furthermore since one can vote only one day out of a very large number for most political races, and no other person can vote for you, the burden you suffer, should you not have the right ID with you, is exceptionally high.